Solidarity with American Axle strikers grows

Solidarity is growing rapidly across the U.S. and beyond for the workers at American Axle, on strike at five plants in Michigan and New York.

Hamtramck, Mich., March 24. WW photos: Alan Pollock

About 3,600 workers at the plants walked out Feb. 26 against the company’s intentions to cut their pay in half, replace their pensions with a 401-k, increase health care benefit costs, and demand other outrageous concessions that are an affront to the dignity and respect of workers everywhere.

The workers now make on average about $50,000 annually—before taxes—as compared to the $10.2 million in total compensation that American Axle President Dick Dauch ripped off from the workers in 2007. Dauch is also a former chairperson of the National Association of Manufacturers. Other American Axle company executives also make millions off the backs of the workers.

The UAW went on strike charging an unfair labor practice because of the company’s refusal to open its books for bargaining purposes. American Axle is a parts maker spun off by General Motors in 1994. More than 40,000 workers at 30 GM production plants and suppliers in the U.S. and Canada are now idled.

On March 24, as the strike completed its fourth week, Local 235 and Local 262 sponsored a spirited rally and march in Hamtramck, Mich., site of American Axle’s largest production plant, where 1,900 workers labor. The two locals represent about 2,200 workers in Detroit, which surrounds the municipality of Hamtramck. The day’s events were also co-sponsored by Local 412, an amalgamated local that represents more than 5,000 union members in the Metro Detroit region.

Over 20 UAW locals from throughout Metro Detroit and Michigan, representing workers in many industries, sectors and plants, including Delphi, Dana, GM, Ford and Chrysler, came out in the hundreds to support their sisters, brothers and loved ones at American Axle. Other unions and community organizations also attended, including the Green Party, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI), the AFT, the Machinists and the Electrical Workers.

Dave Sole, president of UAW Local 2334, and Alan Pollock of MECAWI told Workers World about a diverse multinational rally at the local union hall, where a DJ spun and a barbecue took place, followed by a spirited march of hundreds of workers around the massive Hamtramck plant. The marchers stopped at several picket lines for speak-outs and then gathered in formation on both sides of American Axle world headquarters, singing and chanting slogans such as, “We are the union, the mighty, mighty union.”

During the march a truck driver attempting to enter the plant threatened picketers with serious bodily harm while trying to drive through a moving picket line. Instead of arresting the driver, cops threatened the workers with arrest if they didn’t allow the truck through, which eventually happened.

Despite this, the workers’ mood was high. They entered their fifth week on strike March 25 vowing to fight on and win.

Terry Hannon, a member of the International Action Center—Buffalo and a retired Teamster who worked for the Buffalo News as a driver and helper for 33 years, was on the Tonawanda, N.Y., picket line March 23. He has also participated in the UAW Local 846 picket line in Cheektowaga, another industrial suburb of Buffalo.

“I think it’s absolutely imperative that working people realize what’s happening in this country. The bosses are destroying our livelihoods, our jobs, and we have reached a point where we have to change our way of thinking and our tactics as far as dealing with this very, very big problem. And as a union worker and a worker for many years, I just feel we have to get out there and support these auto workers. It’s absolutely necessary,” Hannon told WW.

Caleb T. Maupin, a sophomore at Baldwin-Wallace College near Cleveland and a member of the youth organization Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST), joined Hannon at the Tonawanda line.

“Even though I’m a young person, even though I’m of Irish heritage, even though I may be queer, I’m still a worker. And that’s the primary contradiction in society today—between the workers and the bosses. I am a member of the working class. When my working-class brothers and sisters are out on the picket line, I stand and support them because we’re on their side in the struggle that’s going on. We’re going to be on their side until we win,” Maupin told WW.

Maupin added, “If this strike is won, it will strengthen the unions and open up all kinds of possibilities for my generation because the unions have always been first in the fight for things like student aid, which allows a lot of young people to attend schools, and for better education. If the working class was strong enough we could actually stop this bosses’ war that’s being waged in Iraq. But if the strike didn’t succeed, it would crush a lot of people’s desire to fight back. So that’s why we’ve gotta keep fighting.”

WW also spoke to Patrick McCarthy, vice-president of Local 846, which represents about 600 workers at the Cheektowaga machining and Tonawanda forge plants, and Marty Kuntz, the local’s financial secretary. They said the local receives daily phone calls, donations and provisions from across the country. Every day numerous union members from Metro Buffalo and beyond join their picket lines. Local 846 also has a strike support website, www.uawaam.com.

UAW Local 424 represents workers in Buffalo, N.Y., at a plant that was shut down in December 2007, before the strike. All five plants on strike are governed by a UAW master agreement with American Axle.

During week four of the strike, donations, support resolutions and provisions continue to pour into the locals. UAW members in Toledo, Ohio, brought trucks of canned goods to Detroit. Other regional union caravans are planned. The Graduate Employee Organization—AFT, in the midst of planning its own walkout, sent a support resolution and $500 to Local 235. In Three Rivers, Mich., where about 800 members are on strike, the local union hall is packed with provisions donated from the community. All the picket lines are joined by labor and community organizations; some have set aside specific times and days for their members to participate.

Internationally, union and other progressive Web sites and blogs in the U.S., Canada, Europe and elsewhere post frequent updates on the American Axle strike.

Send donations and support resolutions to UAW Local 235, 2140 Holbrook Ave., Hamtramck, MI 48212; 313-871-1190; [email protected] or [email protected]

Allan Pollock, Mike Shane and Dave Sole in Detroit; Caleb T. Maupin from Cleveland; and Terry Hannon from Buffalo contributed to this report.